1. Technical Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a vehicle cornering light, and in particular to a vehicle cornering light that can improve the visibility in a diagonally front area of a vehicle.
2. Background Art
Vehicles such as automobiles have headlights on either side of the front part of the vehicle body in order to improve its forward visibility during night travel. Specifically, such a vehicle headlight is used to illuminate the area in front of the vehicle body. Accordingly, when such a vehicle is running along a curved road or turning right or left, the headlight of the vehicle might not effectively illuminate the area in the traveling direction. Namely, in the above-mentioned cases, the light beams from the headlight might not be projected toward the actual traveling direction of the vehicle. As a result, the visibility in the traveling direction of the vehicle may deteriorate.
For example, FIG. 1 shows the case where a vehicle V is turning right during night travel. In this case, the headlight cannot properly illuminate the area Ar from the right area to the right front area which is located in the traveling direction of the vehicle V. Accordingly, it would be difficult for the driver to visually confirm pedestrians P or the like (on the other hand, it would be also difficult for the pedestrians P to visually confirm the vehicle V). In particular, as the traveling direction of the vehicle just before it turns right (or the illuminated area) and the direction where the pedestrian walks (or the area to be illuminated) may not overlap each other, the light beams from the headlight might not illuminate the pedestrian and its peripheral proper area.
In order to address the above characteristics and/or problems, a cornering light can be provided in addition to the headlight as an auxiliary light (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-270382).
The cornering light can be provided on both the front corners of the vehicle body (laterally of the headlight) in order to illuminate the diagonally front areas of the vehicle body which might not be covered by the headlight. The illumination range of such a cornering light can be a predetermined range around the directional center of 45° with respect to the front-to-rear (i.e., longitudinal) direction of the vehicle body, and the luminous intensity distribution over this range can be determined around this 45-degree direction as the center. In particular, the intensity distribution can be determined in the directions of 30° and 60° within a predetermined chromaticity range in accordance with a certain regulation (for example, see the graph shown in FIG. 7). Accordingly, the cornering light is configured to illuminate a required road surface area and the area in the traveling direction TD in accordance with certain regulations. This cornering light can project light beams onto a proper area in the traveling direction of the vehicle body when driving along a curved road or turning right or left, and therefore, the driver's visibility in the traveling direction can be ensured and improved (for example, see FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 4).
In general, such a cornering light can be configured to be turned on or off at one of the vehicle body corners in the traveling direction in association with the turning-on or off of a directional signal switch or the steering angle of a handle of the vehicle.